Larrabee State Park, WA

The first state park in Washington, Larrabee State Park just south of Bellingham, started with a family donation of 20 acres and now covers 2,683 acres from shoreline to mountains.

The Larrabee campsite area is literally squeezed in between Route 11, a two-lane scenic road with lots of weekend traffic, and the Burlington Northern railroad line, which provides a half-dozen train whistles and rumbling trains to the mix. Between the two, and the close quarters in the campsite area, it can be hard to feel like you’re really escaping civilization.

There are lots of small lakes and hiking trails, but since I was only here one full day, I decided to go for the very short beach trail, because I love beaches the best. Mountains are amazing, lakes are awesome, but beaches, well, beaches will win my heart every time.

My friend Vida tipped me off that the beach had some great sandstone formations, so I went looking and, yes, indeed, they were cool. I found myself seeing shapes in them, like this one of faces:

And this one I like just because it looks cool.

Although it was a tiny beach, and I could walk it from end to end in about 3 minutes, there were lots of things to see and I had fun with photography, as shown by the next two shots.

An abandonded boathouse across the waterRaindrops on leaves, beautiful in closeup

All in all, a good start to my vagabond life and a reminder that even a short walk on a tiny beach can have great beauty.

City: Bellingham, WA

Site: 22 (way too small, shared driveway/trailer spot = no privacy

Hookups: Inner loop has them, outer loop does not.

Facilities: Restrooms and showers

Campground hosts: No

Rangers onsite: Shared with other area parks, poor presence during a busy holiday weekend (Memorial Day).